Astralis breeze past Fiend to lock in semi-finals spot at IEM

The favorites have delivered so far in the playoffs, with Astralis joining Ninjas in Pyjamas and Vitality in the semi-finals.

Astralis are through to the IEM Fall semi-finals after defeating Fiend in a series that was marred with technical issues and saw the Danes secure a comfortable 2-0 victory on the way to the next playoffs round. There, Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif and company will face the winner of the last quarter-final series between G2 and ENCE on Saturday at 20:15 .

The win sees Astralis remain in contention for a Legends spot. Assuming they will make no changes to the roster (such as bringing back Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander), they can qualify for the second Major stage by placing three spots above one of Vitality and Ninjas in Pyjamas or four spots above G2.

Meanwhile, Fiend have fallen to the 5th-8th decider bracket, where they need to win at least one series to clinch a spot at PGL Major Stockholm.

Magisk was leading from the front on Nuke

It was a controlled victory on Nuke that kicked off the series for Astralis. The Danes immediately seized the momentum on the Terrorist side with a pistol round win and didn't allow Fiend a way into the half until it was 6-2, with the Bulgarians finding it difficult to keep hold of yard and containing their opponents.

Kamen "⁠bubble⁠" Kostadinov's team then found a footing, but a loss to just Deagles in Astralis' hands put a stop to their brief successful run, and the half went the favorites' way at 9-6. A Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth Dualies quad-kill and triples from Magisk, Lucas "⁠Bubzkji⁠" Andersen, and Philip "⁠Lucky⁠" Ewald later, Astralis reached 14 and closed the map soon after without much trouble.

An extraordinarily long technical break marred the beginning of Inferno, the second map, but that didn't seem to hinder Astralis one bit. It was business as usual for the Danish squad, who didn't get off to the best of starts after the issues were solved but finished the first half far ahead nonetheless on the back of a stellar defense, and went on to lock in the semi-finals spot at 16-9, 2-0.

IEM Fall 2021 EuropeBest of 3

Astralis

Matchpage

2

0

8th October 2021

Fiend

16

Nuke

10

16

Inferno

9

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Lucas 'Bubzkji' AndersenBubzkji	41 - 28	+13	93.5	70.6%	1.37
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	34 - 28	+6	86.2	74.5%	1.27
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	40 - 29	+11	75.5	78.4%	1.20
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	31 - 30	+1	80.5	70.6%	1.10
Philip 'Lucky' EwaldLucky	29 - 23	+6	49.2	70.6%	1.00

Fiend	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Hristiyan 'REDSTAR' PironkovREDSTAR	32 - 36	-4	66.7	70.6%	1.02
Deyvid 'h4rn' Benchevh4rn	31 - 31	0	61.1	68.6%	0.93
Viktor 'v1c7oR' Dyankovv1c7oR	28 - 36	-8	62.1	62.7%	0.84
Simeon 'dream3r' Ganevdream3r	26 - 35	-9	57.6	68.6%	0.83
Kamen 'bubble' Kostadinovbubble	21 - 39	-18	55.7	56.9%	0.65